Identify the characteristics that best explain Farrington in Counterparts.

Farrington can be seen as a victim of the world around
him.  He is victimized by his boss and his work setting.  He is victimized by his
friends, who use him for a night of drinking. He is victimized by his pawn broker, whom
he now owes.  Joyce also describes his domestic situation as one of victimization:  "His
wife was a little sharp-faced woman who bullied her husband when he was sober and was
bullied by him when he was drunk."  It is this victimization that drives him to beat Tom
in the end of the story.  Farrington is a victim of the world around him and of his own
limited condition.  In being "the figure of brutalized Irish manhood," Farrington can be
described as a victim.

Another characteristic that can
explain Farrington is victimizer.  Farrington victimizes Miss Parker, demanding that she
work faster in order to compensate for his not working much at all.  Farrington also
victimizes his boy, who seeks to make him dinner and while being beaten begs his father
to stop so that he can say a "Hail Mary" for him.  Farrington is shown to be a victim of
the world around him that dehumanizes its workers and uses people as a means to an end.
Yet, Joyce does not miss the opportunity to show the effects of such treatment, one in
which the victims become victimizers themselves in a startling absence of empathy.  It
is in here in which Farrington becomes a very challenging figure to describe, but
compelling character to understand.